ELT qualifications: downstream from the Delta

Ten years ago the Cambridge Esol diploma in English language teaching was in its infancy, but for a group of teachers in Rome it presented a range of opportunities to develop their careers. Annette Margolis, one of those teachers, has contacted members of her training group to share their thoughts on the value of their Deltas

Ten years on from completing my Cambridge Esol Diploma in English language teaching to adults (Delta) I was toying with the idea of a reunion. I was curious to know how my co-trainees had fared in the years since we were thrown together on our course in Rome. The reunion is still a work in progress, but the recollections I've shared with my colleagues and their impressions of how the qualification helped them in their careers might offer some useful insight for those embarking on a Delta now.

I restricted my questions to the members of our teaching practice group who worked together during the first intensive month of our course: Alex, Charlie, Margaret, Joanna and myself. This group had even more reason to bond, beyond sharing teaching experience, because our Delta was a pilot and we were the paying pioneers.

Life before DeltaAll four of my colleagues were working at various private language institutes in Rome while I was teaching one-to-one, work-related English in a tyre factory. Most of us saw the Delta as a source of stimulation after years of classroom routine and as a possible opening to more lucrative and rewarding work such as teacher training.

Work-study balanceAfter our first month of full-time study, the rest of the course was part- time, which made fitting study around other commitments easier.

Joanna relied on self-discipline. "I was really strict with myself and confined all my studying to Fridays as my two children were small and I wanted to spend weekends with my family. I was only teaching 16 hours a week, so this was not an issue."

Charlie was teaching 25 hours a week so she was also able to make time for both, but Margaret chose to adjust her school schedule to better suit the demands of the course. "I was teaching 30 hours a week but I had insisted on having the same course books as the previous years. I also dipped into lesson files which I had kept from the last four years," she said.

While Alex recalls that flat hunting in Rome was the main distraction she had to contend with, I did freelance teaching at the British Council in Rome during the course. I also gave private lessons that could be more experimental and allowed me to try out materials and teaching techniques in preparation for the observed lessons.

After qualifying"I had planned to return to the UK after finishing my Delta, which I did, and got work straight away," said Charlie. "I started working at a London university doing an academic preparation course for undergraduates starting business degrees. Soon after that I started teaching refugees and asylum seekers in further education college in London, while continuing to teach English for Academic Purposes (EAP). After a year the FE post became full-time. Neither jobs would have been open to me without the Delta."Margaret was offered a permanent contract at International House in Rome, and she's been there ever since. "However, I quickly moved into teacher training and started training up as a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (Celta) tutor a month after qualifying," she said.

The Delta's impact on Joanna's career structure was less profound. "My teaching situation didn't change a lot," she said, "but I felt more professional and it gave me confidence in my practice. I also felt able to give seminars, which I'd never done before."

Alex didn't complete the course but she says it helped her teaching become more effective. Her career took an unexpected twist when she went to work as a university administrator in China, a career diversion that she thinks she would have been less inclined to take if she'd qualified for her Delta.

After I completed the course I was offered a contract position at the British Council and the salary advance came in handy for paying off the costs of the course. As in Charlie's case the Delta also opened the back door to EAP work and the summer pre-sessional course I taught on gave me a break from teaching teenagers.

Was the Delta worth it?"I loved the course itself and found it really motivating, which makes it all the more strange that I've returned to my original training as a primary school teacher as a source of income," said Joanna. "Having the Delta makes me more aware of language issues across the primary curriculum."

Margaret has met her Delta aspirations: "I have to say yes as I am now a head of teacher training, but I do think I've worked hard at what I do."

Alex recalls not having any clear expectations of what the Delta might do for her. "I know that I was tired of teaching general English and working the fairly horrible hours that entailed. Not long after having completed initial intensive training, I did manage to change my teaching situation for the better and began teaching business English. I'm now back home in Vancouver teaching English at a language school. Plus ça change."

"Definitely," said Charlie. "It gave me the entry qualifications I needed in the UK. At that time the Delta meant I was fully qualified in further education. This is no longer the case, as the government now requires FE teachers to take the Postgraduate Certificate in Education with Esol.

"I am currently working in a sixth form college giving English as an additional language support to 16-to-19-year-olds, and in a prison teaching foreign nationals," said Charlie.

As for me? I suppose my teaching rather than my career has moved on as I am still grafting away in a secondary school with similar pupils to the ones I taught pre-Celta. However the Delta really opened my eyes to how the consequences of my teaching decisions affected my learners' actions and for that I am most grateful.

• For more information about the current modular-format Delta go to Cambridge Esol.

About this article

ELT qualifications: downstream from the Delta

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 04.00 EDT on Friday 24 April 2009.
It was last modified at 19.11 EDT on Monday 19 May 2014.
It was first published at 04.05 EDT on Wednesday 16 June 2010.